As the AWA Digitalize Youth Project 2025 enters its final phase, October was a month of reflection, adaptation, and continued commitment. With the six-month project drawing to a close, our focus remained on maintaining steady contributions, strengthening participants’ technical skills, and finding new ways to overcome the persistent challenge of sourcing reliable references.
Expanding Focus: Including Togo
In October, Togo was officially added as one of my focus countries, alongside Niger and South Sudan. This expansion was a practical step to widen the scope of notable topics available for creation and improvement. As locating reliable references for Nigerien and South Sudanese topics continues to be challenging, including Togo opened new opportunities for participants to work on relevant subjects within our shared thematic areas of civic engagement, digital rights, and governance.
Training and Capacity Building
Three sessions were held this month, all designed to strengthen participants’ understanding of reference quality, neutrality, and the technical aspects of Wikidata contribution:
27 September 2025 – Improving Wikidata Items with Qualifiers and References:
This session focused on deepening participants’ skills in enhancing Wikidata items with precise qualifiers and properly sourced references, ensuring data completeness and reliability.
3 October 2025 – Reliable References and NPOV:
Participants learned how to identify trustworthy references and apply the Neutral Point of View (NPOV) when editing Wikipedia and Wikidata. The session emphasized writing factually, avoiding bias, and citing verifiable sources to maintain content integrity.
4 October 2025 – October Office Hour:
The office hour provided an open space for discussion and feedback. Participants shared the ongoing difficulties of finding reliable references for regional topics, and together we explored translation as a viable approach to address this challenge.
All session recordings and materials can be found on the Meta page here.
Translation as a Sustainable Approach
With sourcing difficulties still persistent, translation remained a key strategy in October. Participants translated well-sourced articles from German and French Wikipedias into English Wikipedia, ensuring factual accuracy and reliable citations. One participant also translated Nigerien topics into Hausa Wikipedia, expanding the project’s impact into local language spaces.
October Contributions
Despite reference-related challenges, the month recorded a strong level of engagement and output:
| Articles Created | 4 |
| Articles Updated | 6 |
| Items Created | 26 |
| Items Updated | 2 |
| Articles Translated | 8 |
| Total Edits | 46 |
These contributions reflect the adaptability of our editors, who continue to apply peer learning and translation techniques to ensure consistent, high-quality outputs.
Looking Ahead
As we approach the conclusion of this six-month journey, our community continues to demonstrate resilience and collaboration. The focus now shifts to consolidating progress, documenting lessons learned, and highlighting how peer-led learning and translation have sustained the project even amid sourcing constraints.
In the coming weeks, we aim to:
- Continue promoting translation across languages to address content and sourcing gaps.
- Support editors in applying strong referencing and neutrality principles.
- Capture and share our collective achievements through final documentation and reporting.
October reaffirmed the strength of adaptability within our editor community, proof that even when challenges persist, collaboration and creativity keep knowledge growing across Niger, South Sudan, and now, Togo.
Stay connected with our updates through the project Meta page and follow our final steps as we conclude this inspiring chapter of the AWA Digitalize Youth Project 2025.
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